FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[What's Burning?]

It would have been easier if McLaren just said the up front thing... we didn't want our cars to look naked and we're above the 'YOUR AD HERE" stunt of HRT.

They'll get a title sponsor soon enough. Come on, it is McLaren after all, and they're leading the WCC! (for now...)

Not doubting that Lew, and believe me, I'm a happy camper seeing McLaren back in the fold but you and I both know that the things that Ron said behind closed door about McLaren weren't much different than what some of the McLaren fans were saying. (the ones that didn't have their head buried in the sand) Letting Lewis go was a bonehead move by management, as great a blemish as their MP-28 and it's part and parcel why they're title sponsorless this year.

But there is a corporate image to uphold.

[1Lemon]

If its dry I have high hopes for the Williams, if it's wet then not so much as Australia showed they have a lack of downforce, but the long straights might help negate that here.

Should be an interesting race with all these dynamics lining up.

[gdh]

I'm just hoping that the engineers have worked through the majority of bugs so that they can start pushing the cars closer to their limits.

[RyRy]

I love the new camera overlays where you can compare easily the lines of multiple drivers wish they'd show it more.

Game ghost cars xD

Sent from my Nexus 4

[LewEngBridewell]

Just caught up on first and second practice.

Merc looking good again, although they aren't a million miles away (one hopes anyway).

McLaren seemed stronger in FP1 than in FP2. Not sure what happened in second practice, it went a bit iffy somehow. Similar to Sepang, it seems to be Merc, and then a gaggle of teams not far behind, including McLaren, Ferrari, RBR and Williams. It'll be interesting to see how that develops into qualifying tomorrow.

My goodness Lotus are having a terrible season. All through practice, their cars were breaking down, and after such a good season last year, Grosjean must be feeling somewhat crestfallen. As must Maldonado, now he's seen Williams' form.

[spankyham]

I think this GP will be about tire, fuel and temp management.

[LiamCatterson]

Great to see the boys in Red as a more serious contender for victory than in Oz. 2 tenths separate the top six...Vettel seems to be back on the ball though

[NHcheese]

Mclaren look slow, even with the updates.

Also, worryingly, red bull are good on their tyres. Which is bad for my bet against red bull winning. Any mercedes problems could see a RED bull or a RED ferrari win. But as I always say after these things....




Doubt it though.

[LiamCatterson]

Do know we're scheduled for a wet session for P3 and Quali too, so that MAY shake up the order if that's any help, but we shall see. Not hoping Mercedes will fault their cars for the race but I do hope from some threat from a sexy Red beast

[sagi58]

... I do hope from some threat from a sexy Red beast

I second that emotion!!

[spankyham]

AUTOSPORT understands that changes have been made to the control box software supplied to Ferrari for Malaysia that should ensure there is no repeat of the Australian GP issues - Here's hoping they give Ferrari working software this time!

 wrote:">Ferrari had software problem early in Australian Grand Prix

Ferrari's lack of pace early in the Australian Grand Prix was caused by a software glitch outside of its control that left both its drivers without full energy recovery boost.

Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen struggled in the opening laps of the Melbourne season opener as they were unable to use the 120KW of power they have available from their car's MGU-K.

That proved particularly costly for Alonso who, without the boost, lost out to Nico Hulkenberg on lap one and then got stuck behind the Force India throughout the first stint.



Ferrari launched an investigation after the race to find out why the MGU-K was not working, and it found out that the problem was caused by issues with how software provided by F1's organisers interacted with its car.

According to appendix 3 of F1's technical regulations, drivers can only use their MGU-K after the start of the race when their car has reached 100km/h.

The confirmation that the car has reached this speed is registered by a control system that is managed by both FOM and the FIA.

A glitch somewhere in this system meant that the Ferrari cars were never registered as having reached the 100 km/h marker - so their MGU-K never automatically activated.

After two laps without any MGU-K, Alonso and Raikkonen did manage to operate a manual over-ride of the system to deploy the kinetic energy themselves.

But this was still not delivering as much laptime as the system in fully working order would have done.

The system managed to reset itself at the first round of pitstops, however, meaning Alonso and Raikkonen had fully functioning cars for the remainder of the race.

It is not clear how much the early issues cost the team but it was possible that Alonso would have made it on to the podium if he had not been stuck behind Hulkenberg at first.

AUTOSPORT understands that changes have been made to the control box software supplied to Ferrari for Malaysia that should ensure there is no repeat of the Australian GP issues.

[spankyham]

[Ferrari man 009]

https://twitter.com/Lotus_F1Team/status ... 4939151360

Also looks like a wet qualifying. Given Merc's FP3 dominance this is good news!

[racechick]

Yes.its pouring with rain! Merc were a second ahead in P3 with Nico fastest on the softs and Lewis fastest on the hards. Big problems for McLaren.
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/03/29/2 ... esult-fp3/

[Roth]

No team can drop like a stone quite like McLaren.